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The  College-Man 

and  the 
Ministry  of  Christ 


*      MAY:i:-i[91]      *, 


A 


ti^i 


^SlC^l  ^^^U'A^J 


'HE  REV.  JAMES  BBVERIDGE  LEE 


^,a.9 


^^  PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


'^ 


BV 

639  .C6 

L44  1911 

Lee 

,  James 

Beveridge. 

The 

college-man  and  the 

ministry  of  Christ 

The  College -Man 

and  the 
Ministry  of  Christ 


BY  ^ 

THE  REV.  JAMES  B£VERIDGE  LEE,  D.D. 

Philadelphia,  Pa. 


Awarded  Second  Place  in  the  Prixe  Eisay  Contest 

igio 


Published  by  the 

Board  of  Education  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 

in  the  U.  S.  A. 

1319  Walnut  St.,  Philadelphia 

1911 


\si 


The  College-Man  and  the 
Ministry  of  Christ. 


BY  THE  REV.  JAMES  BEVERIDGE  LEE,  D.D. 


"Remember  the  Lord  afar  off, 
And  let  Jerusalem  come  into  your  mind." 
— Jeremiah  51:  50. 

Jeremiah  has  been  commanded  to 
speak  this  message  to  a  people  away 
from  home.  It  is  Jehovah's  challenge 
to  a  nation  in  exile, — a  nation  whose 
decayed  rehgious  impulse  was  not 
merely  neglecting  to  open  the  win- 
dows toward  Jerusalem,  but  even 
neglecting  to  pray  to  God. 

Less  than  a  generation  ago  Neb- 
uchadnezzar's well-discipHned  army 
of  invasion  had  swept  over  northern 
Palestine,  meeting  with  as  httle 
resistance    as    the    swelHngs    of    the 


Jordan  when  they  flood  the  lowlands 
in  the  time  of  harvest.  Emboldened 
by  unvarying  triumphs  the  over- 
whelming wave  rolled  southward  to 
Jerusalem,  leaving  its  broad  track 
strewn  with  the  wreckage  of  war. 
Jerusalem,  the  pride  and  hope  of  a 
dissolute  nation,  for  a  brief  time 
maintained  a  defence  rather  by  the 
stubbornness  of  its  walls  than  by 
any  gallantry  of  its  defenders, — a 
narrow  island  in  the  midst  of  a  turbu- 
lent sea, — until  driven  by  the  lust  of 
conquest,  the  fierce  tide  swept  above 
the  strongholds  of  Zion,  engulfed  the 
palaces  of  pride  and  added  to  the 
jetsam  of  war  that  splendid  temple 
dedicated  to  Israel's  God.  The  physi- 
cal wreckage  of  the  campaign, — a 
wretched  crowd  of  captives,  was 
borne  backward  across  the  Euphrates 
by  the  ebbing  tide  of  conquest,  and 
scattered  in  the  midst  of  world-con- 
quering Babylon.  After  the  deporta- 
tion came  the  exile,  and,  in  the  midst 


of  the  exile  came  a  prophet  of  the 
Fatherland  appealing  for  heroic  altru- 
ism and  fidelity  to  God. 

THREE  POTENT  TEMPTATIONS. 

Temptation  to  In  Babylonia  the 
Commercialism.  Hebrew  spirit  was 
threatened  by 
three  potent  temptations,  each  of 
them  made  more  seductive  by  the 
peculiar  conditions  of  the  exile.  In 
ever}^  age  commerce  has  been  fascinat- 
ing to  the  Jew.  He  is  alert  and  suc- 
cessful in  every  profession,  but  he  is 
born  to  business.  That  is  his  birth- 
right. His  home  is  the  market-place 
and  his  native  air  is  the  shop.  His 
own  sacred  books  affirm  that  God 
gave  him  the  power  to  get  wealth. 
That  power  has  never  atrophied. 
Whether  he  has  little  capital  or  large 
his  commercial  acumen  and  his  meth- 
ods of  bargaining  enable  him  to 
succeed   where  others  would   utterly 


fail.  In  the  period  before  the  exile 
Jerusalem  offered  a  very  restricted 
field  to  business  enterprise.  Palestine 
contained  no  great  trade  emporium, 
although  the  caravan  route  from  the 
Orient  to  the  Occident  drew  across 
its  length.  The  world-marts  lay  out- 
side. But  when  the  Hebrews  were 
exiled  they  found  in  Babylon,  opulent 
with  the  riches  of  subjugated  nations, 
unlimited  opportunities  for  the  ac- 
cumulation of  untold  wealth.  The 
danger  was  that,  in  the  midst  of  such 
opportunities,  a  greed  for  gold  would 
develop  and  neutralize  the  longing 
for  the  home-land;  so  that,  when  the 
exile  ended,  those  who  had  found  it 
financially  profitable,  and  whose  vast 
fortunes  might  be  applied  to  the  re- 
building of  Jerusalem  and  its  temple, 
would  feel  that  the  sacrifice  was  too 
great,  and  thus  selfish  advantage 
would  prevail  over  religious  duty. 
Indeed  the  records  of  the  restoration 
show    that    there    were    many    who 


chose  to  remain  in  Babylon  and  serve 
Mammon,  rather  than  to  journey  to 
Jerusalem  in  the  service  of  God. 


Temptation  to  Besides,     Babylon 

Sensualism.  offered  to  the  exiles 

a  profusion  of  sen- 
sual gratifications.  Judea  had  not 
lacked  innocent  pleasures  in  those 
days  when  every  man  sat  under  his 
own  vine  and  fig-tree.  Jerusalem 
had  not  been  without  those  that  were 
base-born,  but  the  Hebrew  life  was 
ordinarily  simple  and  its  pleasures 
recreative.  In  Babylon  the  profli- 
gate crowded  out  the  innocent.  Popu- 
lar craving  for  amusement  developed 
into  a  passion  and  no  diversion  was 
certain  of  patronage  unless  it  was 
florid,  coarse  and  base.  Luxury 
produced  idleness,  and  idleness  dis- 
soluteness; days  became  holidays  and 
nights,  revels.  The  exile  thrust  Israel 
into  all  this  abandoned  life.     These 


wanton  follies  beset  and  allured  her. 
Thus,  little  by  little,  self-indulgence 
weakened  self-control  and  the  old 
heroic  ideals  yielded  to  vanity  and 
vice,  so  that  the  Hebrew  spirit,  which 
was  set  for  the  world's  pilot-star, 
faded  and  grew  dim. 


Temptation  to         And,  in  addition  to 
Irreligion.  this,  Babylon  was 

a  heathen  land. 
The  principal  streets  were  crowded 
with  temples,  and  unsheltered  idol- 
figures  were  everywhere.  Here  Heb- 
rews who  had  never  mentioned  heath- 
en gods  found  their  names  passing 
readily  over  their  lips;  demoralizing 
superstitions  were  practiced  without 
protest,  and  false  religious  teachings 
were  accepted  as  commonplaces  and 
tolerated.  Synagogues  were  erected 
by  the  pious  to  preserve  the  hallowed 
memories  of  Moriah,  but  they  were 
unvisited    by    the    masses;    the    old 

8 


psalms  were  forgotten,  the  services  of 
the  priests  were  neglected,  and  the 
legal  code  disallowed.  Long  before 
the  seventy  years  of  exile  ended  it 
became  evident  that  God's  summons 
to  rebuild  His  temple  and  to  re- 
establish His  worship  would  find 
people  useless  for  His  world-purposes 
by  reason  of  a  secularized  and  irre- 
ligious life. 

Such  was  Israel's  exile  environ- 
ment. Its  enticement  was  so  per- 
sistent and  successful  that  when 
Nehemiah,  under  commission  of  Ar- 
taxerxes,  uttered  Jehovah's  call  for 
the  restoration  of  Jerusalem,  only  a 
"remnant"  gave  response  and  re- 
turned to  make  Jerusalem  the  joy 
of  all  the  earth  and  the  temple  a  house 
of  prayer  for  all  nations,  according  to 
the  purpose  and  the  promise  of  God. 

TEMPTATIONS  OF  THE 
COLLEGE  EXILE. 

These   facts    have    a    very   special 


meaning  for  us  who  are  college-men, 
because  we  too  are  away  from  home. 
Student-bodies  are  segregated.  Stu- 
dent-life is  an  exile.  Separated,  for 
the  duty  of  study,  to  the  college  or 
university  quadrangle,  we  have  our 
own  little  world,  a  microcosm,  in 
which  we  live;  but  which  is,  notwith- 
standing its  peculiar  atmosphere,  a 
very  exact  replica  of  the  macrocosm 
outside.  The  big-world  temptations 
crowd  the  campus,  they  attend  the 
class-rooms  more  diHgently  than  do 
the  best  students;  and  beside  every 
study  table  they  are  always  to  be 
found,  unseen  but  not  unfelt.  Fore- 
most in  the  group  are  the  three  temp- 
tations that  always  beset  exiles. 


Commercialism.  Commercialism  is 
here  insinuating 
that  success  is  not 

what   a   man   is,   but   what   he   has; 

that  it  is   better   to   make  a  living 


10 


than  to  make  a  life,  and  that  a  man's 
business  is  to  get  on  in  the  world 
rather  than  to  help  the  world  to  get 
on — obscuring  the  awful  fact  that 
greed,  when  it  enslaves  the  intellect 
to  mere  wealth -winning,  leaves  life 
a  misshapen  and  shriveled  dwarf. 

Sensualism.  Sensualism  is  here 

arguing  for  self- 
gratification  and 
ease;  opposing  self  sacrifice  and  the 
appeal  of  the  difficult;  urging  that 
there  are  gentlemanly  vices, 
necessary  sins  and  beneficial  indul- 
gences; but  concealing  the  wholesome 
truth  that  propriety  is  not  piety; 
nor  respectability,  purity;  nor  cloist- 
ered sin,  virtue.     And  here  too  is 

Paganism.  Paganism,   sowing 

the  student's  mind 
with  bewildering 

interrogatives ;  darkening    his     soul- 


II 


windows  and  dulling  his  conscious- 
ness of  God;  silencing  his  prayers 
and  interrupting  his  rehgious  prac- 
tices ;  substituting  foot-notes  and 
appendices  for  the  fundamental 
truth-texts  of  revelation;  and  deny- 
ing that  aspiration  is  God's  promise 
of  life's  possibilities,  and  that  "in- 
spiration is  the  prerogative  of  every 
man  who  stands  on  the  windward 
side  of  the  Almighty." 

These  are  the  pecuHar  temptations 
that  meet  every  man  who  matriculates 
for  study  in  any  college  or  university. 
The  danger  is  that  when  men  reach 
the  end  of  the  curriculum  and  stand  at 
the  exit-door  of  the  school  career,  well 
equipped  and  dauntless,  with  the 
authoritative  summons  to  the  highest 
possible  service  of  God  and  man 
sounding  in  their  ears,  they  will  be  so 
possessed  by  the  bread-and-butter 
idea  of  Hfe,  so  alienated  from  the  cross- 
bearing  Christ,  and  so  depleted  in 
religious   enthusiasm   that   they   will 


12 


live  as  citizens  of  Babylon  rather 
than  as  citizens  of  the  Commonwealth 
of  God.  For  this  reason  every  college 
exile  should  ponder  the  old-time  ap- 
peal,— "Remember  the  Lord  afar 
off,  and  let  Jerusalem  come  into  your 
mind." 

REMEMBERING  GOD. 

Significance  to  No  Hebrew  could 
the  Hebrew.  remember  God 
without  thinking 
of  Him  as  existing  at  the  heart  of  his 
racial  history.  Jehovah  was  inter- 
woven with  all  his  past.  To  forget 
Him  was  to  disregard  his  ancestry. 
It  was  to  forget  "the  rock  whence  he 
was  hewn  and  the  pit  whence  he  was 
digged."  It  was  "to  drink  of  the 
water  of  the  old  pool  but  to  forget  him 
that  fashioned  it  long  ago."  It  was  to 
disclaim  his  heirship  of  far-off  genera- 
tions and  his  indebtedness  to  his 
fathers'  God.     Nor  could  a  Hebrew 


13 


remember  God  without  recalling  that 
he  had  been  made  partner  in  a  divine 
world-program.  Had  not  Abraham, 
newly  migrated  to  Palestine,  looked 
out  upon  the  myriad  stars  of  night 
and  heard  Jehovah  promise  that  in 
him  all  the  families  of  the  earth  would 
be  blessed?  And  were  not  those 
promises  which  had  been  sung  so 
gloriously  by  psalmists  and  declaimed 
in  sublimest  rhetoric  by  prophets 
still  unfulfilled?  How  could  a  Heb- 
rew remember  God  without  becom- 
ing conscious  of  God's  claim  upon  his 
own  life?  That  was  the  teaching  of 
history,  and  that  was  the  practical 
purpose  in  prophecy.  Every  thought 
of  Jehovah  was  an  appeal  for  him  to 
resist  the  debasing  tendencies  of  exile ; 
to  cut  the  thread  and  to  break  the 
shuttle  by  which  he  was  being  inter- 
woven with  a  life  meaningless  and 
useless,  and  to  answer  back  to  the 
Godhead's  call  for  human  help,  "Here 
am  I,  send  me!" 


14 


Meaning  to  the  Thoughts  and  feel- 
College  Man.  ings  akin  to  these 
must  stir  and  fer- 
ment in  every  exile  of  the  quad- 
rangle who  permits  himself  to  remem- 
ber God.  Our  fathers  did  not  always 
know  a  Father-God.  The  records  tell 
us  that  our  Saxon  ancestors  "wor- 
shipped the  stern  Woden,  in  the 
forests,  at  night,  where  amid  the  rays 
of  flickering  torches  they  sacrificed 
their  own  children  in  the  worship  of 
the  gods.  We  were  thus  to  the  very 
twilight  of  the  modern  world."  At 
that  time,  men  whose  souls  had  been 
fired  by  the  wonderful  message  carried 
to  them  from  Bethlehem,  and  whose 
eyes  had  been  touched  to  clear  vision 
of  the  meanings  of  life  by  the  Gospel 
of  Calvary,  fought  their  way  through 
the  same  temptations  that  beset  us, 
and  not  counting  their  fives  as  owned 
by  themselves,  bravely  bore  the 
truth-torch  to  our  race  of  blue-eyed, 
fierce-spirited  giants,  and  kindled  in 


15 


their  hearts  that  fire-glow  of  Chris- 
tianity that  makes  us  what  we  are. 


The  Great  Today  twin  nations, 

Adventure.  speaking  the    Eng- 

lish tongue,  sit  su- 
preme in  the  council  chamber  of  world- 
powers, — kings  among  kings.  But 
He  whose  kindness  has  made  them 
great  has  promulgated  in  Christ  the 
universal  law, — "Exalted  to  give," 
and  declared,  "The  greatest  of  all  is 
the  servant  of  all."  Our  privileges 
insist  upon  a  propaganda.  Our 
Christianity  compels  a  crusade.  It  is 
the  very  evident  expectation  of  God 
that  the  non-Christian  world  shall 
find  its  spiritual  blessing  through  us. 
But  the  divine  expectation  will  fail 
of  its  fulfilment  if  those  who,  because 
of  their  college  and  university  privi- 
leges, have  been  told  off  for  leadership, 
fail  to  assume  the  functions  assigned 
them,  and  to  accept  the  undertakings 

i6 


committed  to  them.  In  the  past  God 
struggled  with  our  fathers  for  the 
privilege  of  blessing  them, — the  bless- 
ing has  come.  He  promises  that  in  the 
future  He  will  engage  in  a  similar 
struggle  for  the  blessing  of  all  man- 
kind,— that  blessing  waits.  Those 
who  remember  God  will  understand 
why  it  waits.  They  will  learn  that 
God  wants  men,  strong,  capable  men, 
men  with  red  blood  and  fine  spirit, 
men  of  intellect,  of  judgment,  of 
spiritual  passion,  men  who  have 
received  freely  from  God  and  are  able 
to  give  freely  to  their  fellow  men. 
They  will  find  God  searching  every 
class-room  and  quadrangle  for  men 
like  that,  whom  He  may  make  leaders 
in  the  divine  work  of  regenerating  a 
world. 

EXILES  OF  THE  QUAD- 
RANGLE, BY  THE  GRACE  OF 
GOD  AND  FOR  THE  PURPOSES 
OF  GOD  AWAY  FROM  HOME, 
REMEMBER  GOD!    YE  ARE  NOT 


17 


YOUR  OWN,  YE  ARE  BOUGHT 
WITH  A  PRICE,  THEREFORE 
GLORIFY  GOD  IN  YOUR  BODIES 
AND  IN  YOUR  SPIRITS  WHICH 
ARE  THE  LORD'S. 

REMEMBERING  JERUSALEM. 

There  is  something  in  the  prophet's 
appeal  for  a  remembrance  of  God  that 
carries  down  the  years  and  impinges 
upon  our  reHgious  indifference,  sum- 
moning us,  by  the  holiest  motive,  to 
enlist  in  God's  redemptive  under- 
taking. But  when  the  prophet  asks 
that  Jerusalem  shall  come  into  mind, 
is  not  that  an  anti-climax,  and  does 
it  not  weaken  his  appeal?  I  do  not 
think  so.  Jerusalem,  of  which  Jere- 
miah is  speaking,  is  a  fire-swept  ruin. 

The  Appeal  of  It  is  not   the  city 

Desperate  Need,    "glorious  for  situ- 
ation," "the  joy  of 
the  whole  earth."     His    appeal   does 

i8 


not  spring  from  its  greatness,  but 
from  its  meanness;  not  from  its 
populousness,  but  from  its  desola- 
tion; not  from  its  glory,  but  from 
its  shame.  Elsewhere  he  describes 
it  in  this  fashion : 

"How  doth  the  city  sit  solitary! 

She  that  was  full  of  people ! 

The  ways  of  Zion  do  languish, 

None  come  to  her  solemn  feasts, 

All  her  gates  are  desolate. 

Is  it  nothing  to  you  all  ye  that  pass  by?" 

This  appeal  of  helplessness  and  misery 
gripped  the  heart  of  the  patriotic  exile 
with  a  pathetic  imperative  that  sent 
him  out  to  rebuild  Jerusalem.  It 
was  this  that  came  to  Nehemiah,  in 
Shushan  palace,  by  the  lips  of  Hanani, 
lately  come  from  Jerusalem,  and  so 
appalled  him  that  the  King,  seeing 
his  melancholy  face,  questioned,"  Why 
is  thy  countenance  sad?  This  is 
nothing  else  but  sorrow  of  heart." 
To  whom  Nehemiah  answered,  "Let 


19 


the  King  live!  Why  should  not  my 
countenance  be  sad  when  the  city, 
the  place  of  my  fathers'  sepulchers, 
lieth  waste  and  the  gates  thereof  are 
burned  with  fire?"  Jerusalem  was  a 
ruin ;  its  physical  desolation  being  the 
accompaniment  of  a  more  woful 
ruin  that  had  overwhelmed  an  apos- 
tate nation.  To  let  Jerusalem  come 
into  mind  meant  to  renounce  personal 
ambitions,  to  stretch  the  mind  to  un- 
selfish proportions,  and  to  dignify 
life  with  a  motive  and  a  purpose 
worthy  of  the  Hebrew  name. 


The  Soul  There   are   J  e  r  u  - 

a  Ruin.  s  a  1  e  m  s  in  every 

spiritual  landscape, 
and  ruins  in  every  human  soul. 
Whoever  passes  among  men  observing 
their  altars  and  their  creeds,  their 
doubts  and  their  disbeliefs,  will  dis- 
cover, like  Nehemiah,  that  the  ruins 
are  very  wide  and  that  there  is  "  much 


20 


rubbish,"  and  whoever  studies  human- 
ity man  by  man,  will  find  the  ruined 
temple  and  the  violated  shrine  in 
every  life.  These  world-ruins  have 
made  their  appeal  to  God.  The 
divine  answer  to  their  appeal  is  Jesus 
Christ,  who  is  God  revealing  Himself 
in  human  life  as  its  Master-builder. 
God's  plan  of  restoration  is  magnifi- 
cent and  His  purpose  is  a  divine 
passion,  but  the  work  drags  wearily, 
because  the  human  helpers  are  few, 
He  designed  the  rebuilding  of  Jeru- 
salem, but  his  design  was  compelled 
to  wait  for  Babylonian  volunteers. 
He  planned  to  replace  the  temple  in  its 
ancient  grandeur,  but  the  building 
was  delayed  and  left  incomplete  be- 
cause exiles  whom  He  summoned 
to  become  porters  and  priests,  denied 
Him  their  service.  And  God  pur- 
poses the  restoration  of  all  the  ruins 
in  the  world's  life.  He  has  promised, 
not  only  a  holy  city,  but  also  a  new 
heaven  and  a  new  earth. 


21 


Servants  But     these    plans 

Needed.  can  be  realized  only 

as  His  exiles  put 
on  the  working  clothes  of  servants,  as 
He  did  whose  name  they  bear,  and 
offer  themselves  unselfishly  and  un- 
reservedly for  the  rebuilding  of  life 
according  to  the  plan  of  God.  These 
world-ruins  make  their  appeal  to  us. 
I  am  not  mistaking  the  temper  of  the 
age  when  I  say  that  it  has  dissatisfac- 
tion in  its  own  disbelief.  It  is  ready 
to  exchange  denials  for  affirmations. 
It  is  eager  to  discover  God  and  to 
know  Him.  It  is  willing  to  submit 
its  intellect  to  the  authority  of  truth. 
It  will  welcome  the  man,  for  it  is 
both  searching  for  him  and  expecting 
him,  who  will  interpret  truth  and 
vindicate  faith  in  such  fashion  that 
the  whole  man  can  submit  himself, 
in  sincerity,  to  their  sway. 


22 


Prophets  The  age  is  calUng 

Needed.  for      prophets, — 

men  who  have 
found  their  way  through  those  be- 
wildering passages  where  humanity 
gropes,  who  feel  and  resent  the 
tyranny  of  sin,  who  have  caught  in 
Jesus  Christ  the  vision  of  the  true  and 
the  possible  and  who  wilUngly  devote 
to  Him  everything  by  which  He  may 
be  advantaged  in  restoring  to  men 
their  ideal  and  their  hope.  The  ap- 
peal of  the  age  should  have  an  en- 
thusiastic response  from  the  Christian 
men  of  the  quadrangle,  who,  sensible 
of  God's  help  hitherto  in  their  own 
lives,  ought  to  devote  themselves  to 
the  helping  of  God  in  other  lives 
hereafter,  saying  with  Paul,  "As 
much  as  in  me  lies  I  am  ready  to 
preach  the  gospel." 

THE  MINISTRY  WORTH  WHILE. 

A  writer  in  a  recent  journal  de- 
clares that  "The  sensible  and  well  in- 


23 


formed  as  well  as  the  eccentric  and 
hypercritical  are  asking  in  all  honesty 
today,  '  Is  the  minister  worth  while?' " 
I  would  answer, — All  ministers  do 
not  have  the  same  value,  much  de- 
pends upon  ability  and  personality. 
Sometimes  a  minister  is  found  who  is 
not,  apparently,  worth  while.  But 
the  ministry  is  always  worth  while. 


Calling  and  It    is     true     that 

Career.  every  calHng  is  an 

opportunity  to 
serve  mankind,  but  it  is  also  true  that 
the  supreme  empire  of  service  is  that 
to  which  Jesus  Christ  gave  His  Hfe. 
Man's  ministry  to  man  in  the  things  of 
God  is  always  worth  while.  You  may 
work  upon  marble,  but  better  mate- 
rial is  a  human  life ;  you  may  spread 
your  canvas  with  beauty,  but  it  is 
rarer  art  to  color  divinely  a  human 
soul;  you  may  write  a  song  or  sym- 
phony, but  it  is  higher  service  to  give 


24 


to  men  a  heart  of  joy ;  you  may  grind 
your  lens  and  discover  unknown 
worlds,  but  it  is  truer  service  to  enable 
men  to  vision  the  unsuspected  good- 
ness of  God ;  you  may  use  your  meter 
and  balance,  charge  your  crucible  and 
alembic,  forge  your  piston  and  crank, 
— but  you  will  better  serve  men's 
deepest  needs  if  you  tell  them  the 
fact  of  the  historical  and  the  living 
Christ,  if  you  teach  them  that  Chris- 
tian living  is  unselfish  Hving,  that  the 
successful  life  is  the  helpful  life,  and 
that  helpfulness  is  the  imperative  of 
holiness-. 


Incarnating  There  is  no  calling 

the  Master.  that  is  more  worth 

while  than  the  ser- 
vice of  Christ,  and  in  the  service  of 
Christ  there  is  no  ministry  that  so 
closely  reproduces  His  own  as  that  of 
the  gospel  preacher.  "To  be  like 
Christ,   to   stand   in   His   stead   and 


25 


speak  in  His  behalf,  sensible  of  a 
divine  commission,  persuaded  that 
we  are  His  ambassadors  not  by  fallible 
sacerdotal  selection,  not  by  the  mar- 
ket law  of  supply  and  demand,  but 
by  the  immediate,  internal,  effectual 
call  of  God;  and  thus  persuaded,  to 
take  the  truths  of  Holy  Scripture  and 
unfold,  illustrate,  amplify  them  for 
enlightenment  and 

W^^*  \^ospe^       persuasion,  and  un- 
Preachmg?  ^       ^,  •-, 

der    the    guidance 

of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  have  them 
intensified  by  profound  personal  con- 
viction, fused  in  the  fires  of  one's  own 
soul,  poured  upon  waiting  ears  and 
hearts  from  hearts  and  lips  touched 
with  God's  own  altar-fire,  and  ac- 
companied by  every  possible  adjunct 
of  effective  posture  and  voice — this 
is  preaching."*  This  is  the  need  of  the 
times.  There  are  other  divinely-ap- 
pointed implements  and  weapons,  but 
the  instrument  of  instruments  is  the 

•  "The  Ideal  Ministry,"  Johnson,  p.  17. 
26 


preaching  of  the  gospel.  Every  man 
who  is  graduating  from  student 
privileges  and  pressing  forward  to 
take  a  helpful  part  in  the  world  of 
men,  ought  to  stretch  out  his  hand 
toward  the  Christian  ministry  with 
as  much  eagerness  as  David,  when  he 
reached  after  Goliath's  sword,  saying, 
' '  There  is  none  like  that !    Give  it  me !' ' 

EXILES  OF  THE  QUAD- 
RANGLE, LISTEN!  TWO  VOICES 
ARE  APPEALING  TO  YOUR  LIFE 
TODAY.  ONE  IS  A  VOICE  WITHIN. 
IT  SPEAKS  TO  YOU  OF  YOUR 
PERSONAL  RESPONSIBILITY. 
IT  REMINDS  YOU  OF  YOUR  DUTY 
AND  YOUR  DESTINY.  IT  BIDS 
YOU  REMEMBER  GOD! 

THE  OTHER  VOICE  IS  THE 
HEART-SOB  OF  RUINED  HUMAN- 
ITY, THE  CONFUSED,  MULTI- 
TUDINOUS OUTCRY  OF  ITS  SOR- 
ROW AND  ITS  SIN,  ITS  YEARN- 
ING   AND    ITS    HOPE,    ITS    BE- 


27 


WILDERMENT  AND  ITS  DIS- 
TRESS. IT  BIDS  YOU  IvET  JERU- 
SALEM COME  INTO  YOUR  MIND. 

IS  IT  NOT  TRUE  THAT  YOU 
HEAR  THESE  VOICES?  THEY 
BRING  TO  YOU  THE  PRIVILEGE 
OF  FELLOWSHIP  IN  THAT  PAS- 
SION FOR  GOD  AND  ENTHUSI- 
ASM FOR  MEN  WHICH  MAKE 
THE  AGE-LONG  ATTRACTION  OF 
THE  CROSS:  THEY  BRING  TO 
YOU  THE  OPPORTUNITY  TO 
MAKE  YOUR  LIFE  A  PART  OF 
THE  BLESSED  ENGINERY  OF 
REDEMPTION:  THEY  ARE  YOUR 
CALL  TO  THE  MINISTRY  OF 
CHRIST. 

When  Jeremiah  had  delivered  his 
inspired  summons,  one  Hebrew  exile, 
quickened  to  a  sincere  soul-passion, 
uttered  his  vow  of  undying  faithful- 
ness to  sacred  ideals  and  purposes. 
His  fellow-exiles,  swept  by  the  splen- 
did contagion  of  his  zeal,  caught  up 
the  words  of  his  vow,  and  setting 
them  to  the  solemn  music  of  one  of 
the  old  chants  of  the  temple  service, 


28 


sang  them  to  hearten  one  another  as 
they  too  volunteered  their  Hves  in 
loyalty  to  Jehovah  and  in  devotion  to 
the  Holy  City. 

My  tongue  to  my  mouth's  roof  let  cleave, 
Nor  e'er  my  voice  in  speech  employ, 

If  thee,  Jerusalem,  I  leave. 

And  count  not  God  my  chiefest  joy. 

CAN  YOU  SING  THAT  SONG? 
WILL  YOU  DO  IT?  WILL  YOU 
RESPOND  TO  THE  DIVINE  AP- 
PEAL AND  CALL  WITH  A  VOW 
LIKE  THAT?  IF  THIS  SOUL- 
PASSION  IS  YOURS,  TELL  IT 
OUT!  ITS  CONTAGION  MAY  IN- 
SPIRE OTHERS  WHO  WILL 
ALLY  THEMSELVES  WITH  YOU 
AS  PART  OF  THE  GREAT  ARMY 
THAT  IS  CONSECRATE  TO  THE 
PROPAGANDA  OF  THE  CROSS. 
WHEN  THE  MEN  WHOM  CUL- 
TURE HAS  QUALIFIED  FOR 
LEADERSHIP  VOW  LIKE  THAT 
THE  CHURCH  WILL  BECOME 
THE  JOY  OF  THE  WHOLE 
EARTH,  AND  JEHOVAH-JESUS 
THE  WORLD'S  GOD. 


29 


Date  Due 

'    .■  ■•      "              *A  r,i 

-  4S 

^ 

Princeton  Theological  Semmary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  01028  1709 


^«fif';+.-7" 


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